The Project Managers Guide to Microsoft Project 2019: Covers Standard, Professional, Server, Project Web App, and Office 365 Versions

By Gus Cicala

Learn Microsoft Project 2019 from the perspective of the project manager.

This guide is an all-in-one training resource and reference that covers all versions found in the Microsoft Project 2019 suite. It is not a “how-to” manual covering the features and functions of the software, but is designed to explain and demonstrate why those features and functions are important to you as a project manager, allowing you to maximize the value of Microsoft Project 2019.

Each aspect of project-manager-specific coverage was selectively compiled by author and Microsoft Project expert Cicala over more than two decades of consulting, project management training, and managing real-world projects using Microsoft Project. Readers will appreciate the robust index and intuitively organized and learning-oriented chapters, and sub-sections for quick reference and problem solving. “Try it” exercises at the close of every chapter help ensure understanding of the content.

What You Will Learn

• Understand key components to the Microsoft Project 2019 solution
• Reinforce learning via hands-on exercises with step-by-step illustrations
• Build a plan and work breakdown structure, and manage resources and assignments
• Utilize enterprise project management for creating a project, monitoring, controlling, and tracking
• Export and communicate project information to an external audience

Who This Book Is For
Project managers with limited time and resources who need to maximize their efficiency with Microsoft Project

Answer keys and supporting PowerPoint slides are available for academic instructors upon request.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Apress
• Release date: Apr 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781484256350

Book preview

Part IIntroduction to Project Management

© Augustus Cicala Jr 2020

G. CicalaThe Project Managers Guide to Microsoft Project 2019 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5635-0_1

1. Introduction

Gus Cicala¹ 

(1)

Wilmington, DE, USA

Using This Guide

A High-Level Overview of Microsoft Project 2019

../images/492971_1_En_1_Chapter/492971_1_En_1_Figa_HTML.jpg Learning Objectives for This Chapter

At the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to:

Navigate this text and download the exercise files

Describe the key components of the Microsoft Project 2019 solution

This guide will introduce you to the project manager’s perspective on the latest version of Microsoft Project, Microsoft Project 2019. This set of software tools supports the management of all projects across an organization, or enterprise project management (EPM).

EPM requires that accurate planning and scheduling information flow from the project manager to the technical experts doing the actual work of the projects, as well as the executives making resource commitments and strategic decisions for the organization. Effective EPM allows organizations to better meet portfolio commitments and achieve their goals. The process begins with the project manager, using a variety of tools described in this manual.

Project Assistants has been providing project management theory and Microsoft Project training material for our training courses since the release of Microsoft Project version 3 in 1993. Prior to the release of Microsoft Project 2013, we were surprised that we could not find a work for purchase that provided hands-on training exercises for Microsoft Project on the desktop as well as the enterprise features used in Microsoft Project Professional and Project Web App. We had a responsibility to provide this content to our clients, so we decided to convert our own content into a formal, cohesive guide.

This text was created to serve as that comprehensive reference and training guide, assembling content and best practices honed over many years of Microsoft Project and general project management training.

Our debut was Project Management Using Microsoft Project 2013, and this is now our third edition, with improvements made along the way.

1.1 Using This Guide

Many training guides on technology are primarily manuals on features and functions of the software. The goal of this book is to show why those features and functions are important from a project management theory standpoint and then demonstrate how to effectively leverage that value. When used cover to cover, this text serves as a comprehensive guide to running a project from initiation to closeout with guides along the way for how to use Microsoft Project to facilitate that. This guide can also be used as preparatory material for Microsoft Exam 74-343.

The information in this book was selected based on our 20+ years of project management and Microsoft Project consulting experience. In selecting the features and functions to be covered, we selected a middle-of-the-road approach that deliberately glosses over simple topics that are assumed to be known by the reader. A more difficult decision was faced when determining which advanced features (such as earned value management) to cover in a book of this nature. The features chosen for coverage in this book represent the interests of most organizations with which we have interacted.

There is no need to follow the order in which the material is presented. For example, you may want to start with the overview on Navigating in Microsoft Project 2019 Views, since knowing where to find information is the foundation to unlocking the powerful potential of the tool.

If you are skipping around the book, note that the features are demonstrated in great detail the first time through to take out any guesswork, so if you get stuck, you can always refer back to the first section that covers that feature. Also, many of the exercises build on each other, so you may have to start back on earlier chapters if you'd like your exercise files to be up to date.

This text covers Microsoft Project 2019 Standard, Microsoft Project 2019 Professional, Microsoft Project Server 2019, Microsoft Project Web App 2019 (PWA), and Microsoft Project Online 2019 for Office 365. This text is presented in the context of what a project manager needs to know. As a result, features not relevant to a project manager, such as the Project Server administrator functions, are not covered. Everything in this book is usable in Microsoft Project Professional, and all but Part 4 Enterprise Project Management applies to Microsoft Project Standard as well.

Microsoft offers an off-premises hosted version of Microsoft Project that is referred to as Microsoft Project Online. This tool is part of the Microsoft Office 365 hosted solution family of products that is intended for organizations that wish to reap the benefits of using this technology in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) environment. From the perspective of a project manager using Microsoft Project, the vast majority of the features and functions remain unchanged. When the Microsoft Project Professional and PWA features are covered, nuances related to the use of these features in Project Online will be pointed out. Similarly, there are limited differences between Project Server hosted on premises and Project Online hosted off premises, so they are also highlighted in Part 4 chapters as they come up, rather than in a stand-alone chapter.

The exercise files use a standardized style to explain how to navigate the ribbon. The ribbon is what we call the tabulated menu bar that Microsoft has been using since the release of Microsoft Project 2010. All commands are in bold and italics, and subcategories of the ribbon are separated by colons. When it says, for example, Task:View:Resource Usage View, that means Go to the Task tab in the ribbon, then under the subcategory labeled View, you will find the Resource Usage View.

Downloading Exercise Files Used in This Book

To use the exercise files in this book, you will need to download and potentially unzip them, depending on your browser and method of download.

These files are available for free on Project Assistants’ web site and can be re-downloaded at any time. To download them

Go to our updates and materials web page:

http://projectassistants.com/MS-Project-exercise-file-downloads

Click Register and fill in the appropriate information.

You will receive an e-mail with a download link for the compressed exercise file.

Once the file is downloaded, unzip the exercise files to a location of your choice.

Our updates and materials web page will also host any news regarding significant corrections, updates to the text, or modifications to the supporting exercise files: https://projectassistants.com/ms-project-updates/.

If you have any questions about downloading and using the exercise files, please contact Project Assistants at [e-mail].

If you are an instructor who needs access to the answer key for the end of chapter quizzes, please e-mail your request with a copy of your proof of purchase and a copy of your teaching credentials to the author: [e-mail].

Note

The hands-on exercise files that you download were designed to show month-day format without the year. Before you begin, you may want to change the default date to drop the year from the display. To do so, navigate to File: Options, choose General, then choose the Date Format dropdown. Choose 1/28.

If you prefer to see the year in schedule dates, you may have to widen the date columns to include the year in the display.

../images/492971_1_En_1_Chapter/492971_1_En_1_Figb_HTML.gif../images/492971_1_En_1_Chapter/492971_1_En_1_Figc_HTML.jpg

Project Assistants offers a full spectrum of Microsoft Project training solutions that can be customized to reflect your organization’s unique needs. Please visit our web site to learn more about our training offerings:

http://projectassistants.com/solutions-type/training

Additionally, we offer the ability to license a Microsoft Word version of this volume that can be modified, by you or us, for your specific training needs.

Please contact us to learn more about our training solutions and material licensing options:

Project Assistants, Inc.

1.800.642.9259

302.477.9711

[e-mail]

1.2 High-Level Overview of Microsoft Project 2019

Microsoft Project 2019 is a set of integrated software applications that together provide the tools needed for enterprise project management (EPM). The three basic components are presented in the following figure.

../images/492971_1_En_1_Chapter/492971_1_En_1_Fig1_HTML.jpg

Figure 1-1

Microsoft Project 2019 components Note: For Office 365 the server is referred to as Project Online

Notes:

If you are using Microsoft Project 2019 Standard (instead of Microsoft Project 2019 Professional), this diagram does not apply, as Microsoft Project Standard cannot connect to Microsoft Project Server.

If you are using Office 365, the Microsoft Project Server/SharePoint environment is collectively referred to as Project Online.

If using Microsoft Project Server/Project Online, the EPM process begins with a project manager developing a project plan using Microsoft Project 2019 Professional. This version supports EPM by optionally connecting with Project Server 2019 when starting Microsoft Project 2019 Professional.

The project is sent to a server running Microsoft Project Server 2019, in a process called publishing the project. Once the project is published, it becomes available to other parts of the organization.

Assignments for team members are sent to team members who may receive an automatic e-mail notification that they have new or changed assignments to view.

Team members can view their assignments and report progress on those tasks using a web-based tool called Microsoft Project Web App. When they update the task status, the project manager can view those updates using Project Web App and approve or reject them. Once approved, the information automatically updates the project plan itself, freeing the project manager to focus on the effects of those updates.

The potential weak link in any such system is, of course, the quality and usefulness of the actual project plans that are shared with the rest of the project and management teams.

As with all Microsoft applications, there are multiple ways to do many tasks. Rather than cover every possible method, we will recommend the best practice in each area and list alternatives with brief directions for their use.

© Augustus Cicala Jr 2020

G. CicalaThe Project Managers Guide to Microsoft Project 2019 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5635-0_2

2. Understanding Project Management Concepts

Gus Cicala¹ 

(1)

Wilmington, DE, USA

What Is Project Management?

The Importance of Methodology

Project Phases and the Project Lifecycle

Project Stakeholders and Organizational Influences

Project Processes

../images/492971_1_En_2_Chapter/492971_1_En_2_Figa_HTML.jpg Learning Objectives for This Chapter

At the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to:

Define the basic definition of project management and how project management fits into the environment in which projects typically occur

Describe the common attributes of a successful project

Describe the most common type of projects and the typical lifecycle methodologies that are employed to deliver project results

Understand the importance of the role of project stakeholders and how organizational influences impact the success or failure of projects

Describe the five (5) major process groups that comprise the overall project management process flow

2.1 What Is Project Management?

Project management is an organized set of people, processes, and procedures working together to provide on-time, on-budget delivery of stated objectives with high quality and satisfied sponsors. It achieves this while still taking into consideration that any successful team effort relies on treating people with respect.

Project management as we know it first appeared in World War II as a tool for construction and logistics. The need for enormous amounts of materiel for the invasion of Europe and the vast distances of the Pacific Ocean fostered the development of new ways of planning and scheduling military operations. These approaches were clearly successful, but required practitioners to manage enormous amounts of data—with no electronic help, no less.

After the success of these methods in the war, companies such as DuPont and Remington Arms (which was owned by DuPont) experimented with using them in the civilian sector. Since then, the tools and philosophy of project management have been widely used in both the public and private sectors of our global economy.

Reasons for adopting project management tools and techniques usually include some or all of the following:

Internal and external competition

Pervasiveness of multi-discipline projects

Increasingly complex projects

Customer demands

Technological change

Basically, organizations see project management as a way to do things better, faster, and cheaper. It’s an incredibly powerful tool—when it’s used well. So how do you use it well?

The Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded in 1969 to promote professionalism in project management. They’ve collected and constantly updated project management best practices—what works and what doesn’t—over many thousands of projects into a record called the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) . This guide has been accepted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as the US standard for project management.

Modern project management includes adapting the general principles in the PMBOK Guide to fit an organization’s specific situation. No single approach could possibly fit all industries and organizations on our diverse planet.

What Makes a Project a Project?

Textbook definitions of projects vary, but they all include the following features:

A project is goal-oriented, producing a unique deliverable or set of deliverables.

A project consists of connected, related activities.

A project has limited duration, which means projects are typified by a predefined schedule and usually tied to a specific end date.

A project has elements of uniqueness.

Projects are defined by three constraints which must be managed: time, cost, and scope (work content) of the project.

The modern philosophy of project management includes

An emphasis on the organizational support needed for project management (both philosophical and systems support)

The artistic and scientific aspects of management which project managers have to bring to the table

Art – Team management, reward/punishment, and management style

Science – Scope, risk, quality, cost, and time management systems

Both – Communication, resource, integration, and contract management

Specific knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques that are useful for managing projects

A focus on meeting the needs of the client/customer (internal and external)

What Defines a Successful Project?

A project is deemed successful when the objectives of the sponsor are met. It is important to meet with the sponsor very early in the project to understand their goals and objectives, which should be documented in a project definition document (e.g., project charter or statement of work). Some characteristics of a successful project are

On time

On budget

High quality

Fulfilled objectives

Satisfied customers

Achieved outcomes

To achieve these characteristics, project management must follow a process, be supported by a methodology, and have quality assurance to continue improving the process and the methodology.

The Project Management Process

There are three major stages in the project management process, each stage including several individual processes.

../images/492971_1_En_2_Chapter/492971_1_En_2_Fig1_HTML.png

Figure 2-1

The project management process

Definition and Planning

Definition – Documents the overall project objectives, scope, approach, schedule, budget, resources, deliverables, and completion criteria

Planning and Organization – Provides the detailed roadmap that will be used to guide the project team when constructing the final deliverables

Control

Tracking – Collects information from the team to assist the project manager in assessing actual progress

Analysis – Highlights any deviations from the original plan against current progress

Revision – Makes any necessary plan modifications to steer the project back on course

Scope Management – Provides an orderly means of modifying the original project definition

Status Reporting and Management Reviews – Ensures that all relevant project stakeholders are kept apprised of all key project information

Conclusion

Providing Feedback/Continuous Improvement – Instills quality in the process of project management

Though we’ve focused on the technical aspects of project management up to this point, the last few processes emphasize another aspect crucial to being successful: the people.

Since the project manager is responsible for client satisfaction, clearly stating expectations and constantly managing those expectations is an important skill in avoiding disappointment and dissatisfaction, from both project team members and customers.

Effective project managers are often blessed with a broad range of competencies from intellectual to interpersonal to technical and judgmental. It is this unique package of skills that provides the effective project manager with an integrated, situational approach to successful management that cannot be readily documented and shared in a text on the topic.

The Four Principles of Effective Project Managers

Effective project managers recognize four essential truths which are found in all projects. These key project principles are

Principle 1 – If you don’t know where you’re going, you probably won’t get there.

Application – Set an effective project objective, developed with the input of the client(s) and project team members.

Principle 2 – If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Application – Learn and use the available planning techniques developed by previous project managers and thinkers about project management.

Principle 3 – If you catch problems early, they are easier to solve.

Application – Proactively look for trouble, with an eye toward managing problems, rather than being victimized by them.

Principle 4 – People and politics are the biggest variables in every project.

Application – Remember to make time to focus attention on people issues, both internal to the team and external.

Effective project managers are comfortable operating in the gray area, even if they have come from a technical environment where hard and fast answers may be considered the norm.

Project Management Tools

A computer will not make a good manager out of a bad manager. It makes a good manager better faster and a bad manager worse faster.

—Edward M. Esber

Former CEO, Ashton-Tate

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Project Management Software Tools

One of the obvious advantages of project management tools is that computers make your project plan easy to update and the quality of the output is high, which can save you time. Computers are excellent for handling the extensive calculations required to keep a plan up to date. Their use may even be mandatory when project or resource scheduling information needs to be shared across the enterprise. You can also conveniently and dynamically select the information you want from a large amount of data.

Project management software, however, tends to be fairly complicated relative to other types of personal computer software. This reality makes for a longer learning curve for training and on-the-job experience. It is not uncommon for a project manager to need upward of a year to become comfortable with a new tool. These complications are compounded by the fact that project management terminology is not necessarily intuitive. Whereas the terminology required to use a word processing or spreadsheet application is generally acquired in grammar and high school, many project managers need training in the fundamentals of project management theory to begin to be productive with a tool.

Another consideration is the effort it takes to load all of the information into the tool. Once the project manager makes the commitment of time, it is important to reap the return on that investment by using the tool to run the project.

Conclusion

Based upon these advantages and disadvantages, the investment required to use a tool should only be made for larger projects with higher budgets. A two-month project with 2 or 3 people assigned will not require the same rigor as a two-year project with 25 people assigned who are geographically dispersed. As in any business decision, the benefits should outweigh the cost. Based on these concepts, sound judgment is required to decide how deep to go with using a tool.

2.2 The Importance of Methodology to Project Management

A methodology is an integrated, cohesive, and well-documented set of repeatable processes that provide for quality deliverables through the consistent execution of practices that have been proven to work.

Methodologies are usually developed in organizations that are tired of reinventing the wheel, opting instead to document successful processes and share them across the organization. Methodologies include document templates (such as sample design reports), procedures (such as detailed approaches for producing a data model), forms (such as requests for system enhancements), and work plans (such as Microsoft Project work plan templates).

An effective methodology

Defines repeatable processes

Instills quality into service-based processes

Removes creativity from processes that should not be creative

Provides a floor—not a ceiling

Organizes the project tasks for the work plan

Forms the foundation for continuous improvement

Methodology is the project manager’s primary means of ensuring quality in a project. It supplies the project manager and the entire project team with a cookbook for performing the tasks in the project plan.

Project management is consistent from project to project, but methodologies tend to vary. The project manager needs to determine if the organization already has a methodology for the specific type of project they will manage.

Many methodologies contain detailed procedures to provide a consistent means of performing a process. A procedure for data modeling might look something like this.

../images/492971_1_En_2_Chapter/492971_1_En_2_Fig2_HTML.png

Figure 2-2

A sample proccess for a software methodology

2.3 Project Phases and the Project Lifecycle

Although earlier we referred to the project lifecycle, there are a variety of approaches used to define a project from start to finish and to break it down into phases. In this section, we’ll look at some alternate approaches to project lifecycles. For more examples and detail on this subject, visit PMI.org and download a copy of the most recent PMBOK Guide.

Project Phase Deliverables

Each project phase is marked by completion of one or more deliverables . A deliverable is a product, such as a feasibility study, a design, or a prototype. The deliverables, like the phases, are part of a logical, usually chronological, approach designed to ensure proper completion of the project’s desired product.

The conclusion of a project phase generally includes a review of both the desired deliverables and the project performance, in order to detect and correct errors as early as possible and to decide if the project should continue into its next phase. These phase-end reviews are often called phase exits, stage gates, or kill points.

Characteristics of the Project Lifecycle

The project lifecycle defines a project from beginning to end. Of course, lifecycles vary from industry to industry and even from organization to organization. For example, when an organization identifies an opportunity that it would like to look into, it will often authorize a feasibility study to decide if it should undertake the project. The project lifecycle definition will determine whether the feasibility study is treated as the first project phase or as a separate, stand-alone project.

The project lifecycle definition will also determine which transitional actions at the end of the project are included and which are not. In this manner, the project lifecycle definition can be used to link the project to the ongoing operations of the performing organization.

The phase sequence defined by most project lifecycles generally involves some form of technology transfer or handoff, such as requirements to design, construction to operations, or design to manufacturing. Deliverables from the preceding phase are usually approved before work starts on the next phase. However, a subsequent phase is sometimes begun prior to approval of the previous phase deliverables when the risks involved are deemed acceptable. This practice of overlapping phases is often called fast tracking .

Project lifecycles generally define

What technical work should be done in each phase (e.g., is the work of the architect part of the definition phase or part of the execution phase).

Who should be involved in each phase (e.g., concurrent engineering requires that the implementers be involved with requirements and design).

Project lifecycle descriptions may be very general or very detailed. Highly detailed descriptions may have numerous forms, charts, and checklists to provide structure and consistency. Such detailed approaches are the project management methodologies, as we discussed earlier.

Most project lifecycle descriptions share a number of common characteristics:

Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, higher toward the end, and drop rapidly as the project draws to a conclusion.

The probability of successfully completing the project is lowest, and hence risk and uncertainty are highest, at the start of the project. The probability of successful completion generally increases as the project continues.

The ability of stakeholders to influence the final characteristics of the project product and the final cost of the project is highest at the start and gets progressively lower as the project continues. A major contributor to this phenomenon is that the cost of change and error correction generally increases as the project continues.

Care should be taken to distinguish the project lifecycle from the product lifecycle . For example, a project undertaken to bring a new desktop computer to market is just one phase or stage of the product lifecycle.

Although many project lifecycles have similar phase names with similar work resources required, few are identical. Most have four or five phases, but some have nine or more. Even within a single application area, there can be significant variations—one organization’s software development lifecycle may have a single design phase while another’s has separate phases for functional and detail design.

Subprojects within projects may also have distinct project lifecycles. For example, an architectural firm hired to design a new office building is first involved in the owner’s definition phase when doing the design and then in the owner’s implementation phase when supporting the construction effort. The architect’s design project, however, will have its own series of phases from conceptual development through definition and implementation to closure. The architect may even treat designing the facility and supporting the construction as separate projects with their own distinct phases.

Representative Project Lifecycles

../images/492971_1_En_2_Chapter/492971_1_En_2_Fig3_HTML.png

Figure 2-3

The major project process areas

The preceding illustration provides a perspective of how project management fits into the environment in which projects typically occur. The three major process areas in which projects occur are

Portfolio management

Project management

Project lifecycle management

Ideally, projects are planned, selected, measured, and responded to through a portfolio management process in which the right projects are chosen against factors such as business objectives, budgets, and available resources.

Project management provides a set of business control processes that enable the project manager to deliver a project to completion on time and on budget. The project management process tends to be fairly similar in a broad variety of project types, regardless of the project lifecycle management methods that are used to deliver the project.

The deliverables of a project are conceived, designed, developed, and tested through project lifecycle management processes that typically vary widely across many different industries. These project lifecycles document the processes that ultimately become the project tasks that need to be performed to complete the project with high quality (i.e., on specification).

The following illustration shows some project lifecycles that are common in the world of project management. This illustration is provided to show how these lifecycles conceptually fit into the overall environment in which projects typically occur.

../images/492971_1_En_2_Chapter/492971_1_En_2_Fig4_HTML.jpg

Figure 2-4

Sample project lifecycle methodologies

2.4 Project Stakeholders and Organizational Influences

Project stakeholders are individuals and organizations who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be affected as a result of project execution or successful project completion. The project management team must identify the stakeholders, determine what their needs and expectations are, and then manage and influence those expectations to ensure a successful project. Stakeholder identification is often especially difficult. For example, is an assembly line worker—whose future employment depends on the outcome of a new product design project—a stakeholder?

Key stakeholders on every project include

Project manager – The individual responsible for managing the project

Customer– The individual or organization who will use the project product

Note

There may be multiple layers of customers. For example, the customers for a new pharmaceutical product may include the doctors who prescribe it, the patients who take it, and the insurers who pay for it.

Performing organization– The enterprise whose employees are most directly involved in doing the work of the project

Sponsor– The individual or group within the performing organization who provides the financial resources for the project

There are many other ways to define project stakeholders: internal and external; owners and funders; suppliers and contractors; team members and their families; government agencies and media outlets; and finally individual citizens, temporary or permanent lobbying organizations, and society at large. The naming of stakeholders helps the project manager and team consider which individuals and organizations may require attention. Stakeholder roles and responsibilities may overlap, as when an engineering firm provides financing for a plant it is designing.

Managing stakeholder expectations may be difficult because stakeholders often have different objectives that may come into conflict. Some examples include

The manager of a department that has requested a new management information system may desire low cost, while the systems architect may emphasize technical excellence, and then the programming contractor may be most interested in maximizing its profit.

The Vice President of Research at an electronics firm may define new product success as state-of-the-art technology, while the Vice President of Manufacturing may define it as world-class practices, and then the Vice President of Marketing may be primarily concerned with the number of new features.

The owner of a real estate development project may be focused on timely performance, while the local governing body may desire to maximize tax revenue, an environmental group may want to minimize adverse environmental impacts, and nearby residents may hope to relocate the project.

In general, differences among stakeholders should be resolved in favor of the customer; however, this does not mean that the needs and expectations of other stakeholders can be disregarded. Finding appropriate resolutions to such differences can be one of the major challenges of project management.

Organizational Influences

Projects are typically part of a larger organization, such as a corporation or a government agency. The project will be influenced by the organization or organizations that set it up, especially by their structure.

Project-based organizations are those whose operations consist primarily of projects. These organizations fall into two categories:

Organizations that primarily perform projects for others; for example, architectural firms, engineering firms, consultants, construction contractors, government contractors

Organizations that use management by projects because of the nature of their business, primarily involving non-repetitive or time-limited activities

Project-based organizations usually have management systems in place to support project management, such as financial systems designed for accounting, tracking, and reporting on multiple simultaneous projects.

Non-project-based organizations seldom have management systems designed to support project work efficiently and effectively. This can make project management more difficult, so non-project-based organizations often have sub-units that operate as project-based organizations with systems to match.

The project management team should be acutely aware of how the organization’s systems affect the project. For example, if the organization rewards its functional managers for charging staff time to projects, the project management team should be careful that assigned staff members are being used effectively on the project.

2.5 Project Processes

Projects involve processes which are performed by people and generally fall into one of two major categories:

Project management processes are concerned with describing and organizing the work of the project. The project management processes that are applicable to most projects, most of the time, are described in detail in the PMBOK Guide.

Product-oriented processes are concerned with specifying and creating the project product. Product-oriented processes are typically defined by the project lifecycle and vary by application area.

Project management processes and product-oriented processes overlap and interact throughout the project. The scope of the project cannot be defined in the absence of some basic understanding of how to create the product.

2.6 Process Groups

Project management processes can be organized into five groups of one or more processes each:

Initiatingprocesses – Recognizing that a project or phase should begin and committing to do so

Planningprocesses – Devising and maintaining a workable scheme to accomplish the business need that the project was undertaken to address

Executingprocesses – Coordinating people and other resources to carry out the plan

Controllingprocesses – Ensuring that project objectives are met by monitoring and measuring progress and taking corrective action when necessary

Closingprocesses – Formalizing acceptance of the project or phase and bringing it to an orderly end

The process groups are linked by the results they produce; the result or outcome of one becomes an input to another. Among these process groups, the links are iterated; planning provides executing with a documented project plan early on and then provides documented updates to the plan as the project progresses. Also, these project management process groups are not one-time events, but instead are overlapping activities that occur throughout each phase of the project.

The process group interactions also cross phases; closing one phase provides an input to initiating the next. For example, closing a design phase requires customer acceptance of the design document. Simultaneously, the design document defines the product description for the ensuing implementation phase.

The PMBOK Guide focuses on these interactions and describes each individual process in terms of its

Inputs – Documents or documentable items that will be acted upon

Tools and techniques – Mechanisms applied to the inputs to create the output

Outputs – Documents or documentable items that are a result of the process

This process approach can be very useful to the project manager, and we encourage you to become familiar with the processes common to most projects in most areas as described in the PMBOK Guide. An understanding of these detailed processes will also be necessary if you decide to pursue the PMP certification sponsored by PMI.

../images/492971_1_En_2_Chapter/492971_1_En_2_Figb_HTML.jpg End of Chapter Quiz Questions

   1.   Fill in the blanks: Project management consists of an organized set of _______, ________, and _________ working together.

   2.   True or False: A single approach to project management could fit all industries and organizations.

   3.   List at least three features of a project (what makes a project a project):

1.

________________________________________________

2.

________________________________________________

3.

________________________________________________

   4.   What are the three constraints of a project that must be managed?

1.

________________________________________________

2.

________________________________________________

3.

________________________________________________

   5.   Describe what is meant by the art and science of project management.

../images/492971_1_En_2_Chapter/492971_1_En_2_Figc_HTML.gif

   6.   Fill in the blank: A project is deemed successful when the objectives of the ________ are met.

   7.   What are at least four (4) characteristics of